Attorney Jeffrey L. Needle of the Progressive Litigation website promotes an “aggressive enforcement of fundamental constitutional and/or civil rights.” He wrote an excellent article on the issue of Attorney Fees in Section 1983 lawsuits which conveys a keen understanding of the problems litigants face when plaintiffs have suffered clear Constitutional violations by police, yet the violations are not particularly egregious. Needle states, in part,

“The public interest mandates that fundamental constitutional rights be aggressively enforced regardless of the size of an award of damages. Access to courts is essential for that enforcement. Meaningful access to courts requires competent counsel… …

Where damages are substantial and liability is likely, attracting competent counsel is relatively easy because a reasonable contingent fee can be anticipated.

Where damages are insubstantial, however, the availability of a court awarded fee is the only anticipated fee and essential to attract competent counsel… Reliance upon the pro bono efforts of private trial attorneys is insufficient to provide meaningful access to justice…”

“The overwhelming majority of constitutional violations do not result in substantial damages. Examples of such constitutional violations include, but are not limited to, illegal stops for relatively brief periods of time – including racial profiling, illegal entry and searches of homes and cars, illegal arrests with very brief incarceration, and excessive force resulting in no serious injury.

These cases and others involving dignitary interests have a high potential for nominal damages.(3) Without the potential for a fee in nominal damage cases, routine constitutional violations such as these, without substantial damages, will very rarely be litigated. The Civil Rights Attorney Fees Award Act was enacted to encourage such litigation… The inability to vindicate constitutional rights due to a lack of resources damages the entire nation and not just the individual citizen.”

All of us at the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (“SBTC”) are excited to announce that we have successfully helped stop an unjust prosecution of an interstate trucker and secured an order from a Catoosa County (Georgia) Superior Court Judge dismissing the case.

In the aftermath of the SBTC’s Federal Police Misconduct Complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice and our request for an Internal Affairs investigation, which was indeed conduced by the state, http://smalltransportation.org/files/94705464.pdf the Honorable Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. dismissed bogus “obstruction” charge (Docket 2014-SU-CR-330) on February 9th, 2015 against Trucker and SBTC-Member Kenneth Ahearn Capell.

“We are very excited to learn that the SBTC’s efforts to defend SBTC Member Kenny Capell were successful. Let be this be a clear message to the industry that the small players in transportation have a strong, new voice in fighting injustice and a sign to law enforcement that we will not tolerate unlawful and unprofessional “color of law” abuse whether it be in the form of waking truckers who are engaged in Federally-mandated sleep or bogus criminal charges. At the same time, we ask the fine professional men and women of the law enforcement community to work in partnership with our members and the industry-at-large on the common goal of preventing driver fatigue and ensuring public safety,” SBTC Chairman James Lamb, a former DOT Motor Carrier Investigator, said today.

All of us at the Small Business in Transportation Coalition (“SBTC”) are excited to announce that we have successfully helped stop an unjust prosecution of an interstate trucker and secured an order from a Catoosa County (Georgia) Superior Court Judge dismissing the case.

In the aftermath of the SBTC’s Federal Police Misconduct Complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice and our request for an Internal Affairs investigation, which was indeed conduced by the state, http://smalltransportation.org/files/94705464.pdf the Honorable Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. dismissed bogus “obstruction” charge (Docket 2014-SU-CR-330) on February 9th, 2015 against Trucker and SBTC-Member Kenneth Ahearn Capell.

“We are very excited to learn that the SBTC’s efforts to defend SBTC Member Kenny Capell were successful. Let be this be a clear message to the industry that the small players in transportation have a strong, new voice in fighting injustice and a sign to law enforcement that we will not tolerate unlawful and unprofessional “color of law” abuse whether it be in the form of waking truckers who are engaged in Federally-mandated sleep or bogus criminal charges. At the same time, we ask the fine professional men and women of the law enforcement community to work in partnership with our members and the industry-at-large on the common goal of preventing driver fatigue and ensuring public safety,” SBTC Chairman James Lamb, a former DOT Motor Carrier Investigator, said today.